Playground Of Death
by Jade Storms
Summary: Someone is leaving bodies in playgrounds all over the city, and the team scrambles to find the killer. Character Death. Rating for disturbing scenes, language and the normal stuff. ABANDONED. Sorry, guys.
1. Chapter 1

_Prologue_

The morning sun had just begun to rise, casting an orange glow upon the city. Streetlights were still on, areas still dark and full of shadows. The lights were still on over one of the playgrounds in Cunningham park, and one could imagine they were spotlights on the playground equipment. There was no breeze, no birds, no nothing. All was eerily still in the playground. In the distance, the faint noise of running feet could be heard. The lone runner, a man in his early thirties, was jogging towards the playground. Jared Nasmith was running out of breath as he continued to jog, his legs feeling heavier with each step. He'd been jogging since 4:56 AM and it was now 7:15 AM. He was an avid jogger--it helped with his stress. He was a 10th Grade Math teacher and needed the stress-relieving effect a nice jog gave him. Normally, he would be getting ready and already be at the school but today was Saturday. Saturday, May 12th to be exact. Ah, school was letting out very soon. That was something he was looking forward to. A smile spread across his face.

He was rounding the corner, the corner that led him by the playground. There was a waterfountain at the edge of the courtyard, where he planned on stopping to take a drink. He was getting tired.. perhaps he would take a cab back to his apartment.. He shook the idea off. No, he'd just stop to rest for a bit. Maybe go to a coffee shop and get a latte and some breakfast. There was a little place on the other side of the park he liked.. He rounded the corner, feet pouding the concrete as he drew closer to the playground. He smiled when he saw the water fountain and slowed down as he came to it, finally stopping and bending over, resting his hands on his knees. For a few minutes, he struggled to regain his breath and leaned over to take a sip of water.

That's when he noticed it.

A kid, probably no older than four or five was laying on the slide, near the swings. Another kid was still, sitting in the swing. And another was perched on top of the monkey bars, slumped. He frowned. Who would let their kids out this early alone? Looking around to see if he could see their parents, he began to walk closer to the kid on the slide.

"Hey, son... are your parents around?" He called, still walking closer. He got up to the slide and frowned, putting a hand on the kid's shoulder. "Son?" He let loose a scream as he pulled his hand back--it was covered in blood.

_**CSI NY**_

It was eerie.

Lindsay Monroe, Crime Scene Investigator, approached the scene with a lump in her throat. Don Flack had told her the situation on the phone, but it was much more gruesome than he'd described. There wasn't blood, guts or any kind of gore, but it was disturbing to see the lifeless bodies of children lying all over the playground. She glimpsed Mac Taylor snapping photos of a body on the swings, Stella Bonasera near one on a slide. She saw a few other Investigators she had met before, but couldn't remember their names. Tears burned her eyes as she saw one particular kid, a little girl no more than five, who was in the sandbox. She quickly blinked them away, however. A crime scene was no place to get emotional. Straightening her jacket, she pulled her brown hair into a pony-tail and approached the crime scene tape blocking off the area.

Stella looked up, green eyes filled with sadness though she smiled at Lindsay. "Hey. Had any caffiene today?"

Lindsay returned the smile half-heartedly, looking around and sighing. "Yeah, on the way... so, what happened?"

Stella shrugged. "A jogger found the scene, totally freaked out. We got called about thirty, fourty minutes ago and even though we haven't finished everything, there's no outward signs of death."

Lindsay was staring at the body Stella had been photographing. "So.. no stab wounds, laceration marks, gunshot wounds, anything?"

Stella shook her head, snapping a picture before continuing. "Nothing. Of course, Sid'll have to take a look, but we can't see anything."

"Maybe they were posioned?" Lindsay turned around to stare at a nearby water fountain, just at the edge of the crime scene tape. She also saw the man she assumed had found the scene, talking with Don in by one of the Police Cars. He glanced up briefly, making eye contact with her, before looking away.

"Its possible. But in such a large quantity? There's fourteen kids out here. If it were something airborn, more people would be dying-- or you'd think they would be, anyway." Stella put her hands on hips, glancing around with a frown. "Lindsay, does anything seem odd to you?"

The younger girl paused before answering, turning her tired face to Stella. "Yeah... who leaves fourteen kids alone in a park this time of morning, and doesn't even come to check on them?"

**Author's Note: I'm back! (Though its been what.. a few days?) I'm just posting the Prologue for now, to test the waters and see how you like it. Hopefully, you'll like it even though its a bit more morbid than my other fics. Anyway, please review but no flames! (please!)**

**Jade**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter One_

"Sid?"

Dr. Sid Hammerback, Medical Examiner, looked up from his intent study of an X-ray. He blinked a second, unclasping his glasses and taking them off his face before opening his mouth to speak. "Detective Monroe," He greeted with a grin. "What have I done to deserve your lovely presence in my lowly Morgue?" He teased, straightening up and crossing his arms. His graying hair was messy, and the older man looked tired. His kind eyes were slightly red from no sleep-- he looked like about half of the other people working at the lab.

Lindsay returned his grin with a smile, walking up to the empty gurney he was standing behind. "You have a few bodies I'm interested in."

Immediately, the man's face fell. For a nanosecond, Lindsay could have sworn she saw him tear up. "Ah, that would be the children, I assume?" He went over to a row of bodies, all covered in sheets. The sight made Lindsay's stomach clench, knowing that she would once again feel sick as she glimpsed those poor kids. Sid sighed, stopping at the first one. "The children are all different ages, the youngest being a year old and the oldest fourteen years old. Cause of death on all of them is Strangulation. The odd thing is, there aren't any marks around their necks or fibers in their mouths, so I don't know if they were smothered, choked or hung. Of course if they were hung, there would be marks, and their necks might be broken.."

Lindsay swallowed, trying to keep her rushed granola bar down. "T.O.D?"

"I'm guessing sometime yesterday afternoon." Sid looked up at her. "You okay?"

"Fine." She blew out her breath, staring at the row. "Flack is looking through missing persons and Mac's gonna try and get a front page." She shook her head. "Why weren't their parents around? We went through that entire neighborhood and no one had seen those kids before in their lives."

Sid sensed her sadness and walked around to her, pulling her into a fatherly one-armed hug. "I don't know, Linds.. But we'll find out who they are. Don't worry." He gave her a smile before turning to attend to another body.

_**CSI NY**_

_Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep._

"Mmmm.."

_Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep._

"Alright, alright. I'm up." Danny Messer groaned, rolling over and slamming his hand unto the nightstand. He groped around for his cell phone, knocking over a lamp and his glass of water before finally finding his cell phone. "Messer." He yawned into the phone.

_"Danny?"_

The tear-filled voice had him awake immediately. "Lindsay? What's wrong, babe?"

There was a pause. _"Danny, I'm so sorry to wake you up.. I know its your day off but.."_

"No, no. Don't worry about it. What's wrong?" He asked again, rubbing his eyes.

_"Th-This morning, we went to a scene.. Cunningham Park. The.. kids. There were so many, I don't know why.. it just made, made me sick no one even knew those kids! There were no parents, no one's even--"_

"Lindsay, Lindsay.. slow down." He frowned, leaning to sit on the side of his bed and run a hand through his messy dark blonde hair. "You're not making any sense."

_"The case.. its just.. it just has me so shaken up and I don't know why.."_

Danny sighed. "Okay, tell you what. I'll come down there, give you guys a hand, huh?"

_"Danny--"_

He grinned. "Not another word. See you in a bit, okay?"

Danny spent the next fifteen minutes showering, and dressing. He turned the water on as hot as he dared, toweled off and put on a blue polo with jeans. He managed to remember to comb his hair, brush his teeth and put on some nice smelling cologne his mother had gotten him for Christmas. He must've been out of his mind for offering to work on his day off, but his fiancee had sounded really, genuinely scared. Yes, he and Lindsay were engaged. It was only about four months until their wedding now and as each day passed, Danny found himself getting more and more excited.

If only he knew what the next days held for him...

**Author's Note: Well, not a very long or productive chapter but as always, I like to leave people in suspense and slowly creep along until wham! And as you might have seen in the summary, someone IS going to die. I usually would rather hit myself upside the head than kill a character but on this story, it just felt.. right. But I think this is the only story I'll ever kill a main character off in. Anyway, enough rambling. Please review, and remember.. flames aren't nice!**

**Jade**


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Two_

"The blood that Mr. Nasmith found on one of the bodies isn't human. Probably from a bird or something, but its still kind of interesting. Mac said he was going to look around the scene, see if there were any dead birds or squirrells. We still don't have anything from Missing Persons, and the bodies are a dead end. Unless someone comes looking for these kids, we've got nothing." Stella heaved a sigh before turning to glance at the person walking beside her. "Lindsay?"

Lindsay was too lost in her thoughts. There was something that she couldn't shake, a feeling. It was a bad feeling, one that had slowly crept up on her and was now making her look over her shoulder and jump at the slightest little thing. But she also had another feeling.. a feeling that something horrible was going to happen. And she just couldn't shake it.

"Lindsay?"

She was finally jarred from her thoughts. She turned slowly to Stella, forcing a weak smile. "Sorry, uh.. what?"

Stella gave the girl an odd look. If she was interested in the way Lindsay was acting, she didn't say anything. She merely sighed again and folded her arms across her chest. "We have nothing. Literally nothing."

"No one's looking for the kids?" The idea of it made Lindsay sick. How could no one be missing their child?

"If they are, they sure aren't acting like it. Don isn't getting anything from Missing Persons.. and you'd think that if someone had lost their child they would call the police but all the leads we got were dead ends." Stella glanced out the window, seeing rain clouds in the distance. "Mac had better hurry up." She commented, turning to give Lindsay a tired look. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see Sheldon about another case I have. You gonna be okay?"

The younger investigator nodded. "Danny came up and we were gonna try and think this one out."

Stella nodded as well, waving at Lindsay as she began to jog away. "Okay. If you need any help, let me know!"

**_CSI NY_**

"You know.. this place reminds of a park I went to as a kid."

Detective Jennifer Angell looked up from her survey of the playground to give Mac a raised eyebrow. "Don't all parks look alike?"

Mac chuckled, continuing his search through the bushes. "No.. Why, there was one park I visted when I was eleven that had a waterfall in it."

"Wow.. and it wasn't part of the country club?"

"Nope." Mac grunted, bending down to examine a stick with something red on the tip. "You ever been to any notable places?"

Jennifer stuffed her hands in her pockets, running through her memories. As a kid, she hadn't travelled too much thought she had been to Europe three times. But all those times at Summer Camp didn't count. "Well.. I went to Ireland with my parents when I was a kid.. beautiful place. It was all.. green."

Mac laughed. The red stuff wasn't blood, and so far he hadn't found any skewered animals. Maybe the blood on the kid had come from the primary crime scene.. because more than likely, the playground wasn't where the kids had been killed. A sudden roll of thunder caused him to look upward and see that indeed, the sky was clouding over and it looked as if rain were going to fall any minute. Glancing at Jennifer, he sighed. "Well.. there goes our search plans."

**_CSI NY_**

"Is it possible these kids were runaways and not from around here?"

"Danny, how would a one-year old run away? These kids are from age One to Fourteen. Its possible for the thirteen- to fourteen year old but highly unlikely for the others."

"But what about the out of town theory?"

"We could run with it.." Don commented, walking up to the pair. He leaned onto the table, sipping a cup of coffee and giving them a charming smile, glancing at the window. "Geez, its raining cats and dogs out there.." He turned back to the couple, sighing dramatically and waving his hand for emphasis. "So how goes the wedding plans?"

Danny grinned. "Oh, we've already decided where we're going to honeymoon.. Jamaica. And the wedding should be sometime in November.. we haven't decided for sure.."

All the while the two were talking, Lindsay tuned out and drifted into her own little world. She couldn't get those kids' faces out of her mind. If it were her kid, she would be out there day and night looking for the killer. Looking for some sign to find her child. Whatever it took. Sighing, she smiled at Danny and Don, excusing herself to go to the bathroom. And she did. She sat in the bathroom and cried.

**Author's Note: Sorry its disappointing. I got sick again and then I couldn't upload any documents, then I had a family crisis. You know how it is. The next chapter is already in the works and trust me, you won't be disappointed with it! Nonetheless, I hope you guys enjoy this one. Please review! (but don't flame!)**

**Jade**


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Three_

The morning sun woke her.

She distinctly remembered closing her curtains before stumbling into bed the night before, but now they were open and allowing the sunlight to shower the room in bright orange and therefore disturb her somewhat pleasant slumber. She blinked open her eyes, squinting and holding up a hand to lean over the side of the bed and glance at the clock. 8:45 AM. Well, someone was going to be late for work and it was her. Groaning, she rolled back over onto her back and gave a heavy sigh, rubbing her eyes and face with her palm. She'd only had one nightmare, and she'd been running around a playground with several children and then suddenly they disappeared and she was left alone, screaming and crying for help. Then, in the dream, she'd been cradling someone's body, though she hadn't seen the face. Damn this case. Damn it all to hell. She was just sitting up in bed when she realized someone was sitting at the foot, staring at her. She blinked, focusing on the person and blinked again.

"Danny?" She whispered.

In the direct line of the sun, Danny looked like an angel, come to grace her messy bedroom with his presence. She suddenly became aware of her room's appearance and was embarrassed. The small room was covered in random piles of clothes, the dresser having looked like a tornado hit it. The chair and table supporting her laptop and home phone was covered in stray papers and other things, the floor barely visible. She felt a slight blush creep to her cheeks and she cleared her throat. "I.. I'm sorry about the.. the mess.."

"Are you okay?"

She turned to Danny from her inspection of the room. He supported a genuine expression of worry and love, and he inched closer to her until he could take her face in his hands. He stroked her cheeks softly, kissing her forehead. That was when she felt the tears come back. "Danny.. Danny, I can't believe that.. that no one.. no one is looking for those kids.. it just.." She began to sob, clutching him for support as she rested her head on his chest. He sighed, moving a hand to stroke her hair as he whispered soothing words.

"Linds.. maybe someone is. It hasn't been that long."

"But.. they're kids and.. I.. I would be demanding to know where my child or children were. I would be doing anything.. anything I had to do to find out. Anything." She whispered. He nodded, resting his head on top hers.

"I know, baby.. I know. But you just have to.. to keep up hope that their parents will walk in. Or that we'll catch the bastard that did it. Don't.. don't take responsibility for these kids, huh?"

Lindsay pulled back to look up at him. His face was still etched with worry, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. She frowned at him, not understanding his words. "W-what?" She asked.

"You heard me. I don't want you obsessing over these kids. They aren't yours, and it isn't healthy."

"Well excuse me for caring when it seems that no one else does. And for your information, Danny, I'm not obsessing.. I'm being haunted. Haunted by their faces, haunted by their deaths and haunted by the fact that no one cares." Her voice had trailed off into a teary whisper.

Danny saw it in her eyes and heard the emotion in her voice and immediately wished back his words. "Linds--"

"No, Danny. If you think I'm obsessing, fine. Just.. just go, okay? I need to get ready for work..." She mumbled, getting out of her bed and going to close the curtains. Danny sat there for a few minutes, watching her as she brushed her hair, gathered clean clothes and ventured into the bathroom. It wasn't until he heard the water running that he finally left.

_**CSI NY**_

When Lindsay got to work, it seemed as if time had slowed to slow motion. She heard all the noises and voices but they seemed faint, distant. It was as if she were walking in a fog. For most of the day, she ignored it, probably because she didn't interact with anyone that much, and not for more than a few minutes at a time. Danny avoided her and she avoided him and someone must have noticed and said something, because around the time Lindsay was supposed to leave, Mac was sitting on the edge of her desk.

She looked up at him. She'd been going over the crime scene pictures and exhausting any lead she had and trying in vain to find something else. She felt frustrated, for more reason than one and right now she really didn't want to talk. But seeing as Mac was the boss, she had no other choice. "Yes?"

Mac waited a few minutes before speaking. "Stella.. noticed you and Danny avoiding each other today."

So Stella was the snitch. She looked down, avoiding his gaze. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Is.. everything okay?"

She shrugged, finally meeting his eyes. "We fought.. about the case. But.. mostly I'm just frustrated."

The older man reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her an encouraging smile. "I'm not going to pry, but know that Danny loves you and he wouldn't intentionally hurt you. And.. if you need anything, the rest of us are right here."

She smiled at him. How did he always know what to say? The man was like a Hallmark card database. "Thanks, Mac. Thanks a lot. It means a lot to me, knowing that you guys have my back."

He chuckled, leaning closer to her and lowering his voice. "Its your turn to take us out to dinner."

She laughed, smacking him and teasing him about the only reason for him cheering her up, was to remind her about the annual dinner. And so as she left work that night, she vowed to call Danny as soon as she got home and patch things up.

**Author's Note: Ahhhh! A storm is brewing and I'm certain its not what you're thinking! evil cackle R&R peeps! And remember.. flames are bad! (Oh yeah, and I can hear you all thanking me for such a speedy update:D )**


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Four_

_He stared across the playground, watching the children play. A group of girls playing Hopscotch on the sidewalk, a few boys building a fort in the sandbox. Older children playing on the swings and chasing each other about in a friendly game of tag. He cocked his head as he watched them, studying them so intently that he noticed nothing else. He had seen all these children before. He knew their names, where they lived, their parents names, jobs, their pets names.. everything. He was not a Pedophile. He was interested in the humanr race period. He watched as a young girl, Cassidy Miller, walked over to her parents and excitedly told them something that he really wasn't paying attention to. He frowned, watching her and feeling a slight chill from the wind, though it was warm outside._

_That was it._

_He needed to kill the children._

_He knew where all of them lived. He knew everything about them, he could do it so easily, so perfect. Make them feel.. pain. Make them feel fear. He smiled faintly, a wicked and villianous smile. They would never experiance the joys of growing older, they would never see College, they wouldn't see anything he'd seen. And he was glad. From his position, perched on a bench to the east of the playground, he began the selections. Trina Gellaro and her sister Gabriella. Trina was five, Gabby seven. Jackson Previtt, six. Emmalina Torresero, twelve. Aaron Hiller, nine. Jeremy Bradston, four. Caleb Norrison, eight. Rochelle Braxton, ten. Cassidy Miller, eleven. Addison Corvelle, one. Jared Michaels, thirteen. Robbie Hollison, two. Gina Baron, fourteen. Dominik Smith, three. They were going to die, and horribly so. They would beg for mercy, their lives in his hands. He would crush their delicate, fragile little lives with pleasure, ignoring their pleas for help, their cries for their parents. The smallest ones wouldn't even know what was going on. His smile widened into an eerie grin as he stood, stuffing his hands into his pockets and beginning to walk towards the playground. He would make it to where no one knew they were gone. Not even their parents. With his sickly smile, he walked past baby Addison's parents, peeking down to glimpse her blue eyes taking in everything around her._

_"Hi there," He whispered. He looked to her parents. "You have a beautiful baby." And without giving them time to say their thanks, he was off, wandering deeper into the park. He now had a mission, a purpose, one that he was going to fufill if it was the last thing he did. He found himself at home a few hours later, back into the lair of the beast. It was their that he prepped his tools of chaos, of evil, for their mission. He would do it at the best times, the times where they would be alone, even if it was just in a room. As long as they were alone, he could get them. And he would. As day turned into night and he continued his preperations, he couldn't wipe his sick smile from his face as he thought of the children's fates._

_They would never see it coming. They were too wrapped up in their trivial little lives to realize that no, not even they were safe from killers and demons. There was nothing special about them, yet there was. They would not be excluded from his wrath, but they were special in their own way, each one of them. One was an artist, the other a preformer, the other a devoted animal lover. But there was nothing special in the way he'd chosen them._

_They had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time_.

_**CSI NY**_

And now, a long time after, sat Stella Bonasera staring at what used to be Cassidy Miller. She didn't know her name, who she was, who she'd belonged to, where she was from. And she wouldn't know until he carried out the next part of his mission.

**Author's Note: Yes, finally an update! Sorry for shortness, but it was intentional. The next chapter is going to be once again, partly from the killer's point of view and I think I'll be concentrating on Stella as well. Thanks to my great friend, Stella Taylor, for giving me this idea! As I was typing this, I was listening to Apocalyptica's "Nothing Else Matters" and it gave me some creepy inspiration too. I figured something out, something that I won't share as it would be a spoiler, but it hit me and it was probably the only good idea I've had all week. Updates are going to be faster, seeing as its Summer and I'm finally out of school and back from Vacation. I'll stop rambling, but I again want to thank Stella Taylor for helping me out and giving me this idea-- You rock, girl! So please read and tell me what you think (as long as you don't flame. :D)**

**Jade**


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